Poly(Butyl Cyanoacrylate) Nanoparticles Deliver β-Nerve Growth Factor to the Brain After Traumatic Brain Injury

Introduction Traumatic brain injury (TBI)Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the main reasons for disability and death in patients. There is evidence showing exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF)Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) can promote neuron axonal outgrowth and prevent injured neurons from dying. However, as a highly selective barrier, the blood–brain barrier (BBB)Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) hampers most of the therapeutic drugs, including NGF, from entering the central nervous system (CNS)Central Nervous System (CNS) for TBI treatments. Some approaches bypassing the BBB, such as intracerebroventricular and intraparenchymal infusion, can help exogenous NGFNerve Growth Factor (NGF) to enter the brain, but such invasive routes may cause hemorrhage and infection in the brain. Since poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) (PBCA) nanoparticles can cross the BBB in vivo, these particles are suggested as a drug deliveryDrug delivery vector to the CNS. In this chapter, the author reviews TBI treatments and challenges, BBB features, and how PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles deliver therapeutic drugs such as NGF to cross the BBB for the treatments of CNS diseases including TBI. Methods To write this review, the author searched the biomedical literature database on PubMed of the National Library of Medicine and the scholarly literature via Google Scholar. The keywords the author used included TBI, NGFNerve Growth Factor (NGF), BBB, drug deliveryDrug delivery, PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles, nanomedicine, and nanotoxicity. Results The intravenous NGFNerve Growth Factor (NGF) delivery to treat CNS diseases including TBI is still limited by the BBB. PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles can help intravenously injected NGFNerve Growth Factor (NGF) to penetrate the BBB into the brain parenchyma, preserve its biological activity, and treat TBI and neurodegenerative disease efficiently. The mechanism underlying BBB crossing of PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles is related to the transcytosis on the barrier mediated by apolipoprotein E (ApoE)Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR). Also, PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles are considered to be of low/no toxicity due to their biodegradation. Conclusions PBCA nanoparticlesPBCA nanoparticles are efficient vectors for the delivery of NGF to the brain and treat TBI in animals.